On Wednesday, the head of the Critics Choice Association, Joey Berlin, sent a letter to members of the organization that criticized the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and its disastrous broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards last weekend.
The Critics Choice Association has its own award show on the CW this Sunday, from 7 pm to 10 pm (Brasília time). Wednesday’s message from Berlin was, in part, to assure members of his organization that “the 26th annual Critics Choice Awards event will be very different from Globes – just as our Critics Choice Association differs from HFPA”.
One can understand why.
Last weekend’s Golden Globes were not only the lowest rated ever, but some experts, like Deadline’s Joe Utichi himself, are wondering if HFPA and its program can be fixed.
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Although the HFPA is comprised of a secret list of 90 – very strange – foreign journalists, Berlin regrets that his organization is not only transparent, but diverse. “We are proud to show our list of members on our website, with photos, clearly demonstrating our diversity. There are black, Asian, and Latino names and faces – men and women, young and old – who represent virtually every state and large city in the United States and Canada, as well as some small cities. “
He also pointed out the “very diverse list of nominees”, without which it was another criticism directed at HFPA’s Globe nominees this year.
Furthermore, he wrote: “Our line of presenters is even better than that of the Globes”.
Here is the Berlin missive in its entirety:
“We always respect and admire the Golden Globe for hosting the Party of the Year, if not for the restrictive HFPA membership policies. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented HFPA from hosting that party this year and the resulting Golden Globe broadcast on Sunday was poorly designed and poorly received.
This Sunday will be our turn. And I promise you, the 26th annual Critics Choice Awards will be very different from Globes – just as our Critics Choice Association differs from HFPA. We are proud to show our list of members on our website, with photos, clearly demonstrating our diversity. There are black, Asian, and Latino names and faces – men and women, young and old – who represent virtually every state and large city in the United States and Canada, as well as some small cities.
Our broad affiliation results in a very diverse list of nominees. Among the important films and series that we have nominated for the Critics Choice Awards – and have been largely overlooked by the HFPA – are “I May Destroy You”, “Da 5 Bloods”, “Judas and the Black Messiah”, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “One Night in Miami”.
Like the Globes, we will have virtually all of our nominated performers participate in virtually our show on Sunday night. Our host schedule is even better than the Globes, including Kevin Bacon, Angela Bassett, Mayim Bialik, Phoebe Dynevor, Morgan Freeman, Gal Gadot, Jim Gaffigan, Chris Hemsworth, Jameela Jamil, Eva Longoria, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jared Padalecki , Kyra Sedgwick, Yara Shahidi, Courtney B. Vance, John David Washington and Catherine Zeta-Jones. But as soon as the Critics Choice winner is announced and all the nominees have reacted, we’re going to focus full screen on the live acceptance speech without strangely returning to the other nominees. And we will be offering generous clips featuring our nominated performances, a delight for audiences who can be inspired to discover films and series they want to follow, without any ridiculous promise from our executives to fix embarrassing organizational flaws.
Presented for the third year in a row by Taye Diggs and with our special See Her award going to Zendaya, we hope and hope that our 26th annual Critics Choice Awards show will be the best of all. And, as the world begins to return to normal in the coming months, we will continue to illuminate the best that the creative community has to offer in our Critics Choice Real TV, Critics Choice Documentary Awards and Critics Choice Super Awards. Last month, we brought our 3rd Annual Black Cinema Celebration to a national audience for the first time, reinforcing our commitment to uphold the broadest spectrum of popular entertainment.
We hope that all CCA members will do whatever they can for their viewers, listeners, readers and followers so that there is a very special award show on Sunday night at CW – OUR show. This is the consensus of more than 400 people who cover cinema and television every day to live. The Critics Choice Awards show is culturally significant – and it’s going to be a lot of fun. We hope you will be very proud. “